Day 54 - A Bomber, A Voice From Normandy Beach, and What About Those Cougars?!

Saturday, 15 October

Today I got to spend some great one-on-one time with my granddaughter Haylee and Deb got to spend time with our grandson Oliver and our daughter Katy. while Ryan and Teresa took some time to celebrate their anniversary coming up on Monday.

While Haylee was waiting for me to get ready to go to on our grandpa/granddaughter lunch date, we heard this B-17 bomber flying over the house...  So I grabbed the cameras...

 It flew by multiple times over the span of about an hour...

Something else really cool (and a little bit creepy) happened at the exact same time this plane flew over... Our son Brandyn is in France for two weeks for his job... He had a free day today and decided to take a twelve hour field trip...  He called me from Normandy Beach just as this photo was being taken!  Now what would be the odds of that?

 This is an amazing plane and it has the most distinguishable sound signature!  They always give me goosebumps when I hear them.

 Haylee jumped on her trampoline the whole time... I think she did at least 200 "butt drops" in a row...

As soon as I was ready, She and I went to Shakey's for lunch!  They used to have a Shakey's in Oak Grove when I was growing up... it was cool to go there today... lots of memories.  We ate salad and pizza and watched BYU beat up on Oregon State on the big screen...  Does it get any better than a Cougar win and desert pizza with your granddaughter?

 Meanwhile, grandma was having a good time with Oliver...

 He is quite the handsome guy...

 And he adores his grandma... especially when she reads to him...

Katy came over for the afternoon and later Joy... Oliver loves his Aunt Katy too!

After the game, Haylee helped me to wash about 7500 miles worth of dirt and bugs off of the Mini.  She loves to wash cars, but I think she loves to squirt grandpa even more.  It took a long time because we did not have very good water pressure, but we had fun working together and LIL BMW looks great again.

Joy and I went over to Maverik and got gas for the Mini... we were going to go over to Costco because gas is $3.439 there, but on the way we saw that Maverik had gas for $3.459... so i figured for only two cents a gallon more that i would be money ahead by not having to drive clear to Costco and back.  After filling the car, Joy and I went into Maverik to get a treat... (Love the fat free New York Cheesecake frozen yogurt.)  When we came out to leave a few minutes later, the attendant was changing the price of the gas out on the big Maverik sign... you guessed it... $3.439!  My dad always said that if it were not for bad luck, I would have no luck at all...

Everyone is settled in for the night now... we will get up and go hear Ryan sing in Stake Conference tomorrow and spend our last day here in Utah for this road trip... Monday, we start for home.

Day 53 - Firearms, Pirates, and Jack-O-Lanterns

Friday, 14 October

Today was a great day with our oldest son Ryan and his family.  Ryan had the day off today and they had a fun day planned for us... we could tell that they put a lot of thought into the day's activities and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Ryan and I went shotgun shooting over in the hills west of Utah Lake.  We successfully powdered about 75 clays and then put about 100 rounds through my new Taurus PT609 Pro Titanium.  I was not very happy with the latter... the firing pin is light and the magazines spontaneously dislodged from the well when the gun was fired.  This really surprised me because I have had excellent luck with Taurus firearms in the past.  I called Taurus and they had me overnight the gun to them and they saiid they would fix or replace the gun immediately... we can only hope.

Meanwhile...

Before we went shooting, I got to play with our grandson Oliver... I was teasing him about his "jailbird" jumper...

 Deb took these cute photos of Oliver with some great diffused light from the large window upstairs...

 I like this one... we really have some cute grandkids!

 Oliver got to try on his Halloween costume... It is supposed to fit an 18 month old... Oli is about a year ahead of his time!

 While Ryan and I were shooting, the girls went to Costco... all of the shopping wore Oliver out and he decided to take a nap in the cart...

After a fantastic dinner of grilled New York Steaks and Spicy Honey Chicken, the kids treated us to a Halloween "cruise" on a flatboat on some private river in Provo... This was Oliver's first ride in a boat...

 He looked pretty tough in his life vest!

 Grandpa and Oli had a great time together as we floated the river...

... in the flatboat that our pirate captain pulled through the water by way of a rope that was suspended over the center of the river... while he pulled, he told us the story of "The Cremation of Sam Magee"...

 Oliver really enjoyed watching the lights and Jack-O-Lanterns that were suspended over the river and along the banks...

Hey Haylee, get in the picture!

 This is so fun grandma...

After the cruise, the kids posed for a picture with the "Captain".

All in all, it was a great day... and now it is time for bed... I wonder how the first day at Disneyland went for Jayson, Heidi, and the kids... Oh, I didn't mention that Jayson surprised them yesterday and loaded up the minivan and headed to California for the weekend... I couldn't ruin the surprise!

Day 52 - Moving to Lehi... (Just Until Monday)

Thursday, 13 October

Today we spent most of the day packing and cleaning Joy's home... well, Deb did most of the cleaning while I loaded the Mini... again.  I also installed a parking sensor in Joy's garage so she can pull into her garage without hitting the wall and still leave enough room to walk behind her car when the door is down... it works pretty cool.  Tonight we moved over to Ryan and Teresa's home so we can spend time with them and two more of our grandkids before we leave for home on Monday...

Day 51 - CHARGE it at Penny's!

Wednesday, 12 October

J Dawg had to fly to denver this morning to negotiate some business and Heidi had a hair appointment so Deb went over to the grandkids house and enjoyed some time with them.  I drove to Orem to pick up a critical part that I needed to repair the generator on the '53 Chev...

After picking up the part, I took the generator to Jayson's and proceeded to put the part into the generator, which proved to be harder than I anticipated... If it had not been for Mae helping me by holding the flashlight, I could not have ever got it done!  (Move over Tyler... she is a great flashlight holder).

Later deb helped me to get the generator back in the truck and polarize it.  When I started the truck, the voltage meter pegged the charging zone... Success!  Now all that needs to be done is the radiator repair and the gas tank swap and J Dawg has a sweet ride.

Jayson flew home tonight and we all watched as Mae opened her birthday present from us (we are not going to be here).  We also watched Penny try on her Halloween costume... she is going to be Captain Hook and she was adorable.

We all watched the season premier of Psych and then we said our goodbyes because we will not see them again before we leave on Monday.  We are moving to Lehi tomorrow night to spend some time with our other grandkids, Haylee and Oliver before we leave on Monday to return home and complete our 2011 road trip.

Today's highlights:

Day 50 - Miss Edwards' Goes To School

Tuesday, 11 October

Today, Debra got up early and went to school with Miss Edwards.  She was greeted by a beautiful sunrise on the way.  She spent most of the day helping Miss Edwards in her amazing classroom. 

While Deb was at achool. I worked on the generator of the old '53 pickup.  I found a broken spring on the brush pressure arm.  I have the parts on order and they should be in tomorrow. 

After school, Lisa asked if I would take some photos of her new baby boy... It was a challenging session because I only  had one light and no baby props, but they turned out ok... I hope she likes them.

Day 49 - Famous Athletes and CornBelly's

Monday, 10 October

Today I helped Jayson cater the BYU Days Golf Tournament at Riverside Golf Club.  I enjoyed being able to talk with Johnny Miller, Lavell Edwards, Mark Weir, Billy Casper, Elder Zwick, and other famous BYU athletes, but most of all, I enjoyed working with my son.  Tonight we took the grandkids to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point.  The kids had a great time and so did Deb and I.  (Note to family:  All of the photos are on the family website... not just these selected ones.)